Sport England Boost for Grassroots Cycling

British Cycling’s Chief Executive Ian Drake has welcomed the news that Sport England has awarded the sports governing body £32 million to grow grassroots cycling over the next four years.

Ian Drake said: “Today’s Sport England funding announcement is a recognition of the good work done by British Cycling members and volunteers in driving grassroots participation and a challenge for us to do even better in the next four years.

“Whether it is for winning medals or for getting people active, we are proud of our record of delivering value for lottery funding and we take the responsibility very seriously.

“There is still a great deal of work to do in making cycling in this country better. We’re looking forward to getting stuck in.”

British Cycling’s Whole Sport Plan ambitions for 2013-2017 will build on the success and growth experienced over the past 4 years across all aspects of cycling as a sport, recreational activity and sustainable transport.

"There is still a great deal of work to do in making cycling in this country better. We’re looking forward to getting stuck in."

Ian Drake, British Cycling Chief Executive

British Cycling’s key grassroots achievements for 2009-2013 include:

Rise in participation - Over 200,000 more people are now cycling at least once per week than were in October 2011. British Cycling is exceeding the ambitious growth target set by Sport England four years ago by over 75,000. This brings the total number of people in England now cycling at least once per week to just under two million.

Women’s cycling - The number of women cycling has risen dramatically in the last 12 months – almost 63,000 more women are cycling regularly. British Cycling’s Breeze programme offering female-only led bike rides has contributed to this rise, as have the inspirational performances by our female cyclists this year.

Inclusive sport - Participation amongst the number of people with a long term disability has also increased by almost 15,000 in the last 12 months.

Since 2009, British Cycling and Sky have organised 49 Sky Rides - mass participation traffic-free city centre events attended by almost 650,000 people.

Over 5,000 free community bike rides for anyone to join, including women-only rides, have been set up and 1,500 Ride Leaders have been trained to deliver them.

A social network for cycling – Social Cycling Groups – has been created via www.goskyride.com with over 13,000 people now setting up their own groups and rides.

Competitive sport is booming - Over 20,000 people are now regularly racing across all disciplines. Almost 3,500 competitive cycling events now take place each year.

Nearly 400,000 young people have been engaged in our Go-Ride programme over the past four years.

British Cycling also works in partnership with 45 local authorities to promote and deliver cycling opportunities.